Pasola Jousting Festival 2013 in Sumba

Pasola Jousting Festival 2013 in Sumba

5 Feb 2013 -
8 Feb 2013

7225

This year, the most thrilling annual traditional war game will yet again highlight Sumba Island, East Nusatenggara, where the breath-taking Pasola Jousting Festival gets underway from 5th to 8th February 2013 and on 7th March 2013.

After a meeting of Rato Pasola or tribe elders and government officials, the dates and the locations of this year’s Pasola festival were designated as follows:

Pasola Homba Kalayo in the village of Kodi Bangedo will be held on 5th February, the Pasola Bondo Kawango in Kodi to be held on 7th February, Pasola Rara Winyo in Kodi on 8th February, and Pasola Wainyapu in Kodi Balaghar on 7th March.

With the announcement of the Pasola 2013 schedule, visitors can arrange their trip to Sumba Island, so that they can take part in this rare and special mock battle festival. There will also be a cultural festival in several villages held in conjunction with the Pasola festival.

This is a most exciting Jousting Festival where opposing teams run into each other on horseback, saddle-less, throwing blunt spears - called hola - to each other to unseat or hurt their opponents or horses. Fallen men or horses may not be attacked, but any blood flowing is believed to fertilize the soil and benefit the next harvest.

The tournament forms part of the traditional Marapu belief on Sumba, where the Pasola forms an inseparable part of the annual ritual, held in conjunction with the Bau Nyale ritual or the arrival of seaworms on the shores of Sumba and Lombok, which normally occurs in February and March.

Once better known as the Sandalwood Island, Sumba in the province of East Nusatenggara, - adjoining the islands of Komodo andFlores, - breeds some of Indonesia’s best horses. The Sumba horses are a cross between Arabian and local horses, and are therefore larger than the neighbouring Sumbawa horses.

There are daily flights from Bali to Waingapu in East Sumba and Tambolaka in West Sumba on alternate days. The island can also be reached from Maumere on Flores, on similarly alternating days between the two towns.